Hello, Canada.

If you didn’t read the post before this called The Big Finale, an Essay., then you are missing out on one hell of an experience I had just miles before this:

6 miles before the border, there was a campsite both of us were supposed to stop at to drop our gear and slack pack it to the border, because the next day we actually had to hike back to a previous pass to be picked up (we didn’t have our passports to enter Canada). So the plan was to go empty handed except 2 bottles of nice beer to the border and then hike back to the camp after our celebration.

Boomer begins running down the trail to get to the camp, hoping our friends are still there. But, my knees being as tired as they were from previous excursions, I hiked at a regular speed. A couple miles go by, and I’m expecting to see the campsite. I walked passed an arrow that pointed to a turn off, but sort of ignored the idea that it could be for me and kept hiking. Finally i’m getting worried, because I want to finish the trail with Boomer. So thinking he is way ahead of me, and start running. and running and running for what seemed like forever and sure enough..

1 mile before the border our whole group of friends are bare backed, waiting for me and Boomer. Boomer isn’t with me or them. And I still have my pack on.

So we think maybe he somehow passed everyone? And we start toward the border.

0.2 miles before the monument, I tell everyone I’m going to sit and wait, and when they get to the border, if Boomer is there they are to yell for me. But they got there and never yelled so I sat for 5 minutes waiting. When Boomer never showed up, I gave up and hiked the rest of the P.C.T. all the way to Canada.

Boomer wasn’t there, and I was a little worried. But eventually he showed up, sprinting, no pack, bottle in hand and he was thoroughly confused how I could be ahead of him.

The situation was figured out and celebration commenced. Celebration of the greatest adventure of my 20 years and 1,700 miles of life. And celebration for future relaxing and endless amounts of food.